Spoiling the Broth since February, 2004.

Comments: Eating locally, eating organically: an update on the garden

Comments

Meg, I love reading about the progress of your garden. My herb garden has suffered the ravages of deer this year -- they've eaten tomatoes, chives and parsley, all things they usually leave alone. At least they are eating locally! One thing you might do as your herb harvest comes in is to snip and dry some herbs to use during the winter. The herbs you dry from your own garden always taste more flavorful....like those new potatoes you grew yourself. I've built a frame from two old screen windows, hinged together. The herbs air dry for a few weeks between the screens. Thanks for the update.

Hiya Meg,
The garden's going great guns!
Just wondering if you've been giving the plants any plant food...that seems to be the trick with my balcony geraniums and kitchen window herb box, which are all doing well despite the heat (or so my hubby tells me...I may return to Paris in a few weeks to withered weeds!).
And I agree, anything you grow yourself tastes 10x better than store-bought stuff :-)
Taina

Taina, the worm tea seems to have dried up recently and I'm wondering if the worms have started colonising the resevoir again. Normally, in my wormery they should stay in the upper regions and the liquid (because most of the food I put in there is high in water) filters down to the bottom and creates a very rich liquid fertiliser. I'm kind of loathe to open it up and investigate at the moment, because I'm also suffering from an infestation of May flies, which are not gross but ARE irritating.

Anyway, I think I've pinpointed the problems with most of the bits of the garden that aren't thriving:

- spinach: doesn't like extreme heat
- coriander: doesn't seem to like extreme heat or direct sunlight
- peas: don't like cats digging up their roots and peeing on them (who does?)
- potatoes: don't like being crowded.

The potato plants that are in big planters are doing much better and in general the rest of the garden is doing well. I've been in correspondence with the guy who is going to cat sit (family guy with teenaged daughters) and he understands that I really want to come back to live plants, so I'm hopeful that for once I won't come back from the holidays to a desert!